Meade RCX400 Telescope - An Astrophotography Wonder

[Darryl]

I have seriously considered buying a Meade RCX400 Telescope for doing some astrophotography work. It has a lot of desirable features, which quite frankly makes me drool. The only problem at the moment is the lack of funds, which begs the phrase "you only live once". This phrase alone could justify the purchase. This telescope is one of the most advanced imaging telescopes on the market today and even though it's not cheap, it is still a great value.

The features which this telescope offers are plentiful and if I can take a moment to wipe the drool from my chin, I'll list some of them. One of the aspects I love about Astronomy is the equipment. I am always marvelled by the way Goto Telescopes like the RCX 400 slew to an object. Once the slew is completed I can walk up to the eyepiece and see the object right in the field of view. I know many of you are very familiar with this but think about it for a moment, isn't it just neat.

The telescope is what Meade calls an Advanced Ritchey-Chretien. The "Advanced" is meant to distinguish it between a traditional Ritchey-Chretien design and Meade's own design. The design combines a hyperbolic secondary mirror with a corrector lens and a spherical primary mirror that functions as one hyperbolic element. The advantage to all this is that it produces a telescope free of coma and provides a flat field of view which can be very advantageous when imaging with a CCD camera.

The f/8 Ritchey-Chrétien Optics are very well known amongst researchers, astrophotographers and amateurs. I would of course like to be one of those amateurs to have those discerning optics sitting in my backyard. The flat field of view these optics provide will be most welcome to my imaging efforts. I can certainly see me squeezing the 16 inch into my backyard, but would gladly accept any of the aperture sizes it comes in which is 10, 12, 14 and 16 inches.

The outer tube assembly is constructed of Carbon Graphite and Kevlar which allows for very little thermal expansion and is light weight compared to other OTA (outer tube assembly) materials. The thermal expansion characteristics help prevent focus shift as the temperature changes throughout the night.

Another nice feature is the built-in dew heater which is in contact with the corrector plate. This feature will cut down on the amount of cables that are dangling off your scope in the dark, just waiting for you or someone else to snag them. The amount of cables that can be involved in an astrophotography setup can truly be mind boggling, and numbing at times if you are trying to figure out what goes where.

If you need more information on the Meade RCX400 you can visit Meade's website or one of the better online retailers.

Regards,